Apparatus and Method for Beam Scanner

ABSTRACT

A light beam steering transmissive element with an arbitrarily sized aperture comprising at least one layer of a insulating matrix modified for increased polarizability under electrical, magnetic or optical stimulation, between two or more substrates that can be electrically configured to provide signal modulation (optical, magnetic or electrical) that will control the wavefronts of incident light, thereby taking off-axis electromagnetic signals and aligning them to the aperture of a receiving element positioned near the device, or the reverse, sending signals originating behind the steering device to a variety of user-defined angles in two or more dimensions.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation in part of U.S. Utility applicationSer. No. 15/421,701 filed Feb. 1, 2017 and entitled “Beam Scanner forAutonomous Vehicles.”

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates, in general, to a vision system for thetransmission and reception of LIDAR signals, and more particularlydirected for use in the navigation systems of autonomous vehicles.

BACKGROUND

Autonomous vehicles are now reality on the battlefield and widespreadacceptance and implementation are on the immediate horizon in othertheaters of operation. The accuracy and precision of these self-drivingsystems depend upon the footprint or map of the area and objects in thevicinity of the vehicle whether moving or stationary. For optimalperformance and safety, the field of view seen should be as wide aspossible and should be able to be sampled at an extremely highfrequency.

All autonomous vehicles have three cooperating systems. The visionsystem, which senses and interprets the distance between objects and thevehicle, the analytics system, which receives the visions system'sconstantly updating signals and performs speed and distance analysis viaits software algorithms to generate a picture of the surroundingenvironment, and the control architecture system which receives inputsfrom the analytics system and converts them into mechanical actions ofthe vehicle such as steering, braking and acceleration.

The prior art vision systems vary in their theory of operation, howeverall transmit a signal and receive a reflected signal from which acomposite image of size, shape and distance is compiled. It is thissignal that is sent further to the analytics system for processing togenerate vehicle control outputs to the control architecture system tosafely guide the vehicle. Commonly utilized automobile vision systemsembody electromagnetic radiation signals, such as can be found in LIDAR(Google), Radar (Tesla) and multi wavelength composite imaging (varioussmall startup companies). All of these utilize some type ofmicroprocessors running image processing software as part of theanalytic system. However, none of these are particularly well suited tooperating the self-driving vehicle with any degree of safety for tworeasons: First, the frequency of their scans is too low, and second,their field of regard (also called instantaneous field of view, IFOV) islimited. This is also the case for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) andsemi- or fully autonomous driver assistants (ADA) presently in use.

While it may be theoretically possible to modify the current prior artsystems to have a higher scan frequency and a larger field of regard,this would require a substantial input of energy as these systemsutilize mechanical beam steering elements that operate either throughmovable deflection, MEMS devices or small rotating mirrors (galvanometerand rotating polygon systems). Any improved systems would have to bephysically larger (and heavier), and would require much faster movementof the equipment to accomplish the desired, faster scan rate; this is aserious detriment to all vehicles, especially those that are fullyelectric.

Henceforth, an improved vision system of self-driving vehicles, having alow power consumption, a large field of regard (as close to 180 degreesin flat applications and 360 degrees in cylindrical applications), andextremely fast scan speeds (in excess of 75 KHz). would fulfill a longfelt need in the autonomous vehicle industry. Although thetransportation industry is only recently focused on autonomous modes ofoperation, the military has long been studying these and relatedproblems. This new invention utilizes and combines known and newtechnologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome theaforementioned limitations of the extant technology.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In accordance with various embodiments, an operational guidance orvision system for a autonomous vehicle is provided. It will have lowpower consumption, a large field of regard and a very high samplingrate; much faster than liquid crystal systems.

Various modifications and additions can be made to the embodimentsdiscussed without departing from the scope of the invention. Forexample, while the embodiments described above refer to particularfeatures, the scope of this invention also includes embodiments havingdifferent combination of features and embodiments that do not includeall of the above described features.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of particularembodiments may be realized by reference to the remaining portions ofthe specification and the drawings, in which like reference numerals areused to refer to similar components.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual representation of prior art reflect modemodulation beam steering, typically employed in telecommunicationsapplications where the optical modulation is affected by a variety ofmaterials, but the aperture for transiting and receiving signals is lessthan 10 cm. An incoming beam 2 is reflectively steered through a varietyof angles to create the steered beam 4 by interactions between layers ofmaterials 6 and 8 with refractive index change proportional to appliedsignal;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual representation of prior art transmissivemodulation typically deployed as waveguides of exceedingly narrowaperture and IFOV where the incoming beam 2 is electroopticallyconverted into a steered beam 4 over a narrow IFOV;

FIG. 3 is a conceptual representation of prior art Galvo scanning unitwhere a focused light beam 30 impinges upon mirrors in X and Y 3 tobecome a steered beam 4;

FIG. 4 is a conceptual representation of prior art transmissivemulti-layer beam steering waveguide typified by optical modulators usingliquid crystal (LC) materials where the incoming beam 2 becomes thesteered beam 4 by interaction with various layers of material 22 and 24with variable electro optical responsiveness;

FIG. 5 is a conceptual representation of an AOM/AOD apparatus having alimited size aperture and field of regard and a very small steeringangle, requiring long beam paths to affect any useful beam steering froma LIDAR perspective. Incoming beam 2 is converted to a steered beam 4 byapplication of RF signals across the crystalline medium 18. The degreeof deflection 20 determined by the frequency of the applied signal withthe deflection occurring in only a single axis 21;

FIG. 6 is a conceptual representation of a prior art monolithicsemiconductor beam steering device using a so-called evanescent fieldhaving low scan speed, small aperture and narrow field of regard whereincoming beam 2 is manipulated by a surface electric filed applied tothe monolith 10 to results in a steered beam 4 across a cone angle 12;

FIG. 7 a graphical representation of resolution as a function of appliedvoltage 16 showing the resolvable number of spots 14 at several spotdiameters;

FIG. 8(a) is a conceptual representation of the transmit mode of thebeam scanner module 46, showing an electromagnetic signal (e.g. a lightbeam) emitter 45 (from a laser or diode or dipole, etc.), an emittedbeam 39, an optional lens or optical conveying device 43 and asubstantially transparent substrate plate 47 for creating random accesspointing (steering) of an incoming signal 39 for the purpose ofhigh-speed (MHz) illumination of an environment external to an AV 38 byinterrogation by the steered beam 50. The user selectable degree anddirection of the steering provided by input control signals from acontroller 61 that is operationally connected to the guidance system 44,which is also operationally connected to the emitter 45. Note, that thecontroller may or may not be integrated into the navigation system andcould either be a separate stand-alone device or exist as an integratedsubsystem within the navigation system electronics. This applies to allsuch constructions within this disclosure;

FIG. 8(b) is a conceptual representation of the receive mode of the beamscanner module 46 showing conversion of the signal 39 into arandom-access user-directed steered beam 50 by reflection from thesubstantially transparent substrate plate, its properties altered by theapplication of control signals as discussed above;

FIG. 9(a) is a conceptual representation of the transmissive receivemode of the beam scanner module 36 where reflected signals 48 arecollected at arbitrary angles after reflection from an environmentexternal to the vehicle (or module) 38, containing objects or surfaces40. The steered beam 60 is created by the beam scanner 52 by applicationof control signals from the controller and navigation system anddirected onto an optional optical conveying device (e.g. a lens) 56 tocreate a beam 62 that is focused on the detector 54 scanner 52, which isoperationally connected to a controller and the navigation system;

FIG. 9(b) is a conceptual representation of the reflective receive modeof the beam scanner module 36 where signals 48 reflected from theenvironment external 38 are collected at arbitrary angles andcommunicated to the detector 54 through a beam steering effect generatedby reflection from layers on the beam scanner supplied with controlinputs from the navigation system/controller unit 44 (s). Operationallythe two modes depicted in 9 a and 9 b are virtually identical, in thesame way that 8 a and 8 b illustrate this principle;

FIG. 10 is a conceptual representation of the receive mode beam scannerdepicted as at least one substrate plate 90 as described elsewhereherein with beam steering capability 1000 times better than any lowentry angle devices with poor aperture, in both transmit or receivemodes, capable of scan speeds >75 KHz and up to 500 MHz. The scanning(transmit mode) and steering (receive mode) are in fact manifestationsof the same phenomenon, which changes in the electro optical interactionwith electromagnetic waves, which is to say light in the simplestexpression. It is achieved by application of control signals 78 or 80 tothe substantially transparent and partially conductive substrate plate,the signals are varied to affect varying degrees of angular deflectionwhich defines the cone angle 92 over which the beam scanner can collectreflected beams 48 from the environment external 38 to the module orscanner or vehicle, depending upon the embodiment. The control signalsoriginate either from the controller 96 as a separate unit operationallyconnected to the navigation system 44 or directly from 44 in the casewhere the controller is integrated;

FIG. 11 is a conceptual illustration of the beam scanner where a controlsignal 78 can be applied to the device structures 102 (with 105 shown asan example layer magnified for clarity) to create an controllable beampath resulting in a steered beam 75 through the substrate plate stack103, comprising at least one substrate plate with affixed particles 104that provide point sources of induced dipole moment to generate bothpermanently polarized regions as well as variably polarized regions ofmaterial to adjust the angle through which the signal 39 travels. Thiscan occur as transmissive beam steering or reflective beam steering inboth transmit and receive modes;

FIG. 12(a) is a conceptual representation of beam path alteration fromordered and collimated to variably angled (transmit mode) beams;

FIG. 12(b) is a conceptual representation of beam path alteration fromvariably angled to ordered and collimated (receive mode) beams;

FIG. 13 is a conceptual representation of the receive beam scannermodule 36 which includes beam scanner 52, lens 56, detector 54 andcontroller 44 (microprocessor) as the navigation system inputs withoutspecifying a separate block component controller. The navigation systemmay interchangeably either directly control or process inputs from thestand-alone control unit. It is understood that both the vision systemand the navigation system are in operational contact;

FIG. 14 is a conceptual close-up detail from FIG. 13, of the beamscanner 52 and lens 56 focusing variably reflected and incident beams 48onto the detector 54. The detail illustrates the arrival location of thebeams and the steering effect placing the beamlets into the aperture ofthe optional optical conveying device or the detector;

FIG. 15 is a conceptual representation of a planar face of any layer ofthe beam scanner 52 represented in cross-section 110 as well toillustrate the three dimensional nature of the beam scanner. 112 alsoillustrates an embodiment of electrical contact between particles and asubstrate plate; and

FIG. 16 is a conceptual view of the vehicle 34 containing both transmit46 and receive 36 modules, which can be used alone or in concert, andthe external environment 38 into which emitted signals 50 are sent fromwhich reflected signals 48 are received and detected. Also shown are thevarious the transmit and receive subsystems 44, 45, 54 and optionaloptical conveying device 43 and 56 for communicating signals.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS

While various aspects and features of certain embodiments have beensummarized above, the following detailed description illustrates atleast on exemplary embodiment in further detail to enable one skilled inthe art to practice such an embodiment. The described example isprovided for illustrative purposes and is not intended to limit thescope of the invention.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the described embodiment/s. It will be apparent to oneskilled in the art, however, that other embodiments of the presentinvention may be practiced without some of these specific details.Certain structures and devices may be shown in block diagram form. Whilevarious features are ascribed to different embodiments, it should beappreciated that the features described with respect to one embodimentmay be incorporated with other embodiments as well. By the same token,however, no single feature or features of any described embodimentshould be considered essential to every embodiment of the invention, asother embodiments of the invention may omit such features.

In this description, the directional prepositions of up, upwardly, down,downwardly, front, back, top, upper, bottom, lower, left, right andother such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears inthe drawings and are used for convenience only; they are not intended tobe limiting or to imply that the device has to be used or positioned inany particular orientation.

Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers herein used to expressquantities, dimensions, and so forth, should be understood as beingmodified in all instances by the term “about.” In this application, theuse of the singular includes the plural unless specifically statedotherwise and use of the terms “and” and “or” means “and/or” unlessotherwise indicated. Moreover, the use of the term “including,” as wellas other forms, such as “includes” and “included,” should be considerednon-exclusive. Also, terms such as “element” or “component” encompassboth elements and components comprising one unit and elements andcomponents that comprise more than one unit, unless specifically statedotherwise.

Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers herein used to expressquantities, dimensions, and so forth, should be understood as beingmodified in all instances by the term “about.” In this application, theuse of the singular includes the plural unless specifically statedotherwise and use of the terms “and” and “or” means “and/or” unlessotherwise indicated. Moreover, the use of the term “including,” as wellas other forms, such as “includes” and “included,” should be considerednon-exclusive. Also, terms such as “element” or “component” encompassboth elements and components comprising one unit and elements andcomponents that comprise more than one unit, unless specifically statedotherwise.

The term “modules” as used herein comprise beam scanners, optionaloptical components, detector or emitters and may or may not encompassthe individual controllers and/or navigation system, depending upon theparticular embodiment under consideration. The use of terms andinclusion of specific components in the drawings are not intended tolimit the scope of this invention in any way.

The term “series of particles”, “particles”, “system(s) of particles” oras used herein refers to a grouping of elements including molecules,molecular clusters, ions, agglomerated particles, nano clusters,individual nano particles, quantum dots, clusters of quantum dots andcarbon nano tubes, whether having an induced or permanent dipole moment,or not, that can be electrically addressed for use in creating either asequential or a random access pointing system. In all cases thematerials in question are applied in a planar fashion in the preferredembodiment but can also be deployed in other orientations relative tothe substrate or to one another. The particles can be applied alone orin concert with other materials designed to restrict their movement. Theapplications may be layered or otherwise

As used herein the term “vision system” refers to components of a fullyautomated (ADA) or semi-automated (ADAS) navigation system for vehicles.The vision system uses electromagnetic signals to collect detection andranging data for objects or the lack thereof, in the vicinity of thevehicle. Signals thus collected are passed to the downstream analyticalcomponents of the automated navigation system for the steering,acceleration and braking of the vehicle. The vision system means,comprises and encompasses the “transmit” module and/or the “receive”module of the present invention. In either case, or the case where thetwo units are deployed together as an integrated system, both units aretied to the scanning of a beam, the steering of a beam to a random pointor the interrogation of a given random point within a given field ofview. Thus the system is capable of random access pointing or sequentialpointing, which is another important distinction between this and othertechnologies.

As used herein the terms “transmit” and “receive” mean emitting orabsorbing all or a portion of any electromagnetic signal by equipmentused for detection and ranging applications.

As used herein, the terms “transmissive” and “reflective” as a modifierto beam steering refer to the pathway of the electromagnetic beamrelative to the beam scanner. Transmissive beam steering ischaracterized by an electromagnetic beam pathway through the beamscanner on its way to subsequent downstream components. Reflective beamsteering refers to a pathway where the electromagnetic beam is reflectedfrom at least one substrate plate of the beam scanner to subsequentdownstream components. The transmissive and reflective beam steering maybe used with receive beam scanners used in a receive mode as at leastone part of a receive module or may be used with transmit beam scannersused in a transmit mode as at least one part of a transmit module.

As used herein the terms “transmit modules” and “transmit modes” areused for transmissive beam steering and the terms “receive modules” and“receive modes” are used for reflective beam steering, all of theforegoing terms are interchangeably used in singular and plural withoutconveying any different intent, application or meaning.

As used herein the terms “lens” and “collecting optic” refer to anyelement(s) interacting with electromagnetic signals as they pass to orfrom the emitter or detector components, functioning as any one or allof the following, alone or in concert: refractive, diffractive orreflective element(s).

As used herein the term “arbitrary size” refers to a grouping of allpossible sizes as used with respect to “particles” present in thedevices described herein. The sizes in the grouping comprise any range,but the optimal results occur when the particle sizes are distributedover a narrow size range (i.e. dispersion) typically less than 200 nmand can be as small as 0.5%.

As used herein the term “partially conductive substrate plate” refers toa grouping of all possible substrate materials that are by nature or canbe rendered conductive to electrical, thermal, magnetic or opticalsignals for use in affecting the local electronic/electro-opticalenvironment within, on, or next to the substrate plate used in beamscanning/beam steering applications.

As used herein, the term “signal” refers to both the plural and singularform of the word. i.e. signal and signals, and refers to anyelectromagnetic wave or particle generated within, on, in, in thevicinity of, or near the operational guidance system, the vehicle, thebeam scanner, the electronics supporting any of the same and allnecessary support components, including, but not limited to, its subsystems or components.

As used herein, the term “beamlets” are defined as any signal that hasbeen steered by a beam scanner and been converted in part or in wholefrom a received beam to a steered beam.

As used herein, the term “field of view” means any grouping of pointsthat can be illuminated by the emitted beam of the guidance system. Thepoints of the grouping can be either consecutively (sequentially) orrandomly addressed or interrogated.

A used herein the term “substantially transparent” means capable ofpassing more than 5% of the incident radiation.

As used herein the term “partially conductive” means capable oftransmitting or receiving a signal through, from, around, about or overa metallic, dielectric or semiconducting material, which could compriseany of a number of materials, including, but not limited to, glass,polymers, gels, ceramics, organic molecules, carbon in any form,crystalline or amorphous materials or mixtures, layers or stacksthereof.

As used herein the term “induced dipole moment” refers to any number ofcharges that can be placed into, on, through or near any “particle(s)”resulting in a user controllable change in the polarizability of theparticle, the local environment or the dielectric substrate after thereceipt of an external signal containing the charge or triggering itsrelease.

As used herein the term “permanent dipole moment” refers to a dipole orcharge that persists without any external control input.

As used herein, the term “dipole” refers to any electrical point or areacharge localized on, in or near a particle in the beam scanning or beamsteering device.

As used here the term “beam scanning”, “beam steering/scanning” and/or“beam steering” refers, interchangeably, to any modification, byreflection, diffraction, refraction, or any change in the incoming oroutgoing electromagnetic signal, that results in a change in thedirection of propagation of the wave or particle comprising theelectromagnetic signal, particularly when the degree and direction ofthe change can be generated, determined or predetermined via theapplication of any external control signal.

As used herein, the term “communicating” refers to moving a signal alongthe chain of component parts without regard to the precise nature of theconveyance, for example in an optical context, “communicating saidcollected electromagnetic signal pulse to or into said receiver”, simplymeans delivering the signal into an optical conveying device to ensureits arrival into the detection mechanism. (the optical conveying deviceincludes, but is not limited to, lenses, fibers, refractive ordiffractive optical elements, GRIN optics, freeform optics, or thefunctional equivalent alone or in concert with other optical conveyingdevices.

As used herein, the term “collected” refers to the absorption ordirection of any portion of an electromagnetic signal(s) for the purposeof relaying said signal(s) to a detection apparatus or subsystem, whichcould be a semiconducting element, a diode or any other detection schemeor component commonly employed.

As used herein, the term “processing” or “signal processing” refers toany algorithmic treatment applied to data generated by and/or collectedby the operational guidance system, including computational imageanalysis, rate, distance and vector information comparisons. The termalso means any treatment, mathematical or otherwise, applied to any datastream associated with the guidance system.

As used herein, the term “operational guidance system” and/or “guidancesystem” and/or “navigation/navigational system” means the set ofcomponents required for the autonomous or semi-autonomous control andoperation of a vehicle, (generally a computerized control system forpilotless operation of a vehicle), which might or might not beautonomous, but rather equipped with some augmented sensing capability.This set comprising optics, lenses, beam scanners, beam steeringmodules, emitters and detectors, alone or in concert with signalprocessing units and driver circuits; also referring to the samedeployed in a vehicle either as an integrated system from a manufactureror as a stand-alone system for modifying vehicle operation from anafter-market point of view. Stated otherwise, it is a combination of avision system and a navigational system to enable the autonomous orsemi-autonomous operation of a vehicle.

As used herein, the term “random access steering” refers to the abilityof a beam scanning/steering system/subsystem/component to receive oremit electromagnetic signals not coincidentally located in space fromany two non-consecutive spatial cone angles. Especially in visionsystems, the ability to move in an other than ordered and linearfashion, similar to CRT displays where the electron beam was scannedline by line, in order from top to bottom without interruption. In thepresent invention the capability exists to randomly address any part ofthe environment, thus offering a higher resolution “look” at any area byuser or computer control. In effect, this innovation creates the abilityto generate a point cloud of arbitrary density.

As used herein, the term “beam steering elements” refers to any of thevarious components arranged in order to emit and disseminate (transmit)and collect and steer (receive) electromagnetic waves or particles intoor from the environment external to the vehicle to facilitate collectionof vision system data for eventual generation of a control signalrelated to operational control of a vehicle, vehicle subsystem orcomponent.

As used herein, the term “optical conveying device” refers to anyoptical element, including, but not limited to fibers, lenses, lenslets,arrays, waveguides, of field effects devices used to communicate anelectromagnetic signal from one component to another.

As used herein, the term “drive signal” refers to the set of inputs toany vehicle system or sub-system. This drive signal can be generated bya guidance system in response to data generated by or collected bycomponents of the vision system.

As used herein, the term “controller”, “external control signal” and“control signal” refer to the signals responsible for determining thepointing direction of any element of the beam steering/scanningapparatus or the entire beam steering/scanning apparatus.

As used herein, the term “moving parts” refers to any component(s) thatchanges physical position or orientation.

As used herein, the terms “MIXSEL”, “VCSEL”, “VECSEL” each refer tospecific types of semiconductor lasers also collectively referred to asoptically pumped semiconductor lasers or semiconductor disk lasers. Moregenerally the term laser, fiber laser, or diode laser as used hereincomprise the set of all lasers regardless of lasing medium capable ofgenerating a single electromagnetic pulse, or a train of electromagneticpulses, emitted at a frequency.

As used herein, the term “vehicle” refers to any device including butnot limited to cars, trucks, boats, motorbikes, light rail, trains,buses, trams, streetcars, RVs, watercraft, aircraft, lighter thanaircraft, spacecraft, and military equipment.

The present invention relates to a novel design for a vision system fora vehicle, specifically for an autonomous or semi autonomous vehicle,completely different from anything done before because it removeslimitations imposed by the approaches previously undertaken. In the wayof further understanding the prior art, the following providesadditional background into the prior art, pointing out its shortcomingsand where the prior art rigidly stuck to its dogma.

Light beam steering or scanning is important for use in all currentvision systems for autonomous vehicles. All of these applications usemechanical beam steering devices to steer incoming electromagnetic beams2 either through movable deflection, MEMS devices or rotating mirrors 30(galvanometer and polygon systems) as suggested in the light beamsteering system 32 of FIG. 3. The challenge for non-mechanical beamsteering is that, for many applications, one desires to steer the beamthrough a large angle (45° or more) and to have reasonably largeapertures (five cm or more IFOV). This implies a very large number ofsteering states (defined in one dimension as the total steering angledivided by the diffraction-limited angular spot size). This implies theideal solution for high speed, high angle, non-mechanical beam steeringwill have many steering devices to provide those steering states or adispersion of discrete elements across the optical field that can beindividually and multiply addressed through an electrical signal toprovide the required states, but also with a large aperture and a veryfast refresh rate in order to accommodate frequencies greater than 100kHz.

Related to the number of steering states is the Lagrange invariant. Thisinvariant is a property of the optical system and does not change withpropagation through the system, including components like telescopes,and other lenses. At a pupil plane (in air), the Lagrange invariant isdefined as the product of the radius of the pupil times the tangent ofthe maximum steering half-angle. Hence, for the specifications above,Lagrange invariants on the order of 2.5 cm or larger are of interest. Toachieve this value, non-mechanical steering with at least two stages orranges is needed: a large-angle discrete steering stage and asmall-angle continuous steering stage as suggested in U.S. Pat. No.5,093,740.

The physics of non-mechanical beam steering can be understood byconsidering the effect of a prism on an incident beam normal to asurface. The index of refraction in a prism is larger than that of air,so light travels more slowly within the prism. The angle of lightpassing through a prism will be changed because the light moving throughthe thick portion of the prism will be delayed compared to lighttraveling through the thin portion. Steering can be accomplished bychanging the thickness of the prism. Light could be steeredelectronically by writing a prism. The problem is that it is difficultto create an optical path difference (OPD) as large as would be requiredto write a full prism of appreciable width. For example, a 10-cm-wideaperture steering to 30° would require >5 cm OPD on the thick side ofthe prism.

For example, phased array microwave radars steer to angles larger than45°. To do this, the radars use individual radiators that are at ahalf-wavelength spacing or closer. Overcoming such a limitation wouldprovide a novel approach to the design of a new vision system forautonomous vehicles of every type.

In radar, the conventional discussion of half-wavelength spacing saysindividual phase adjustable radiators must be no larger thanhalf-wavelength to reduce grating lobes after J. Frank, et al., RadarHandbook Merrill Skolnik, 3e, McGraw-Hill, pp. 13.2-13.3, (2008). Thisis a different view of the same physics about which the presentinnovation is concerned.

Limitations of the Prior Art

FIGS. 1 to 7 illustrate aspects of the prior art which make the priorart alone or in combination, unusable for the construction of a visionsystem for autonomous vehicles. The prior art failures are two fold:they teach a scan frequency that is too low and the field of regard(IFOV) is too small. For these reasons, the data provided to operationalguidance system from the vision system is too sparse for safe operation.The more significant and relevant prior art solutions arechronologically described briefly below.

There are many challenges to creating a reliable, economical and robustsolution to beam steering and a number of interesting solutions havebeen proposed; of those that have been proposed to solve the problemsassociated with mechanical scanning systems, none have trulydemonstrated broad-based applicability to the scanning market andcertainly fewer have been adopted in commercial systems. Beam steeringusing rotating mirrors is by far the most widely adopted solution, L.Bieser, et al, Handbook of Optics, vol. 2, ch. 19, (1994).Unfortunately, rotating scanning mirrors are not suitable for compactoptical systems and are inherently prone to acceleration sensitivity,limiting their application to substantially stationary, highly vibrationisolated systems or systems with extremely high scan rate requirements,greater than 75-100 kHz, depending upon the payload. Although manyadvances have been made over the last 35 years, currently availabledevices can only offer binary beam steering or those that are limited inspeed and/or clear aperture. Additionally, all of these systems sufferfrom significant power requirements to operate, further limiting theirapplicability.

Rather than move a mirror, which requires acceleration and decelerationtime, the ideal solution is to simply steer a light beam without use ofa mechanical element. Direct light control can be achieved through anynumber of means, but each scheme imparts limitations to its broadapplication due to cost or performance. Light can be thus controlledutilizing waveguides. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,377, entitled“Planar Waveguide Liquid Crystal Variable Retarder” relates generally toproviding an improved phase delay device designed to change wavefrontdirections by applying alternating currents signals between 2 and 50volts rms. The disclosure teaches changing phase delay for only TMpolarized light. These limitations are overcome in U.S. Pat. No.9,366,938 B1, which teaches the use of a liquid crystal (LC) enhancedwaveguide modulation achieved through use of direct current signalsapplied to a conductive substrate. This device makes use of LCs thathave by far the largest electro-optic response of any known materials,10⁵ times larger than that of lithium niobate, for instance, in this newconfiguration. Rather than transmit the light through the LC material,usually less than 20 um thick, the LC material acts as a cladding for awaveguide material.

The evanescent field of the guided light wave extends into theadjustable-index LC cladding. This rather clever adaptation selectivelyemploys the well-ordered LC-surface region that provides low scatteringlosses (less than 0.5 dB/cm) and fast response times (10-500 μS), whileavoiding any interaction that is coupled to LC thickness, which avoidslimitations imposed by short LC interaction length and slow relaxationtimes. In spite of all of this, this solution is only optimized fortransmission applications, with the proviso that the input beam diameteris quite small and well ordered. This device architecture is limited tonarrow beam diameter and therefore suffers from large divergence in lowsignal/noise environments, to say nothing of applications in so-calledsingle photon detection applications. This limits the applications ofthis invention to transmitting applications where beam scanning isdesirable.

For some time, Bieser et al, SPIE Milestone Series, vol. 378 (1985),have made a large effort to overcome the limitations of mechanical,acousto-optic and LC based beam deflectors using solid electro-optic(EO) crystals. These are characterized as having a refractive index (RI)that changes in response to an applied electric field. The change with Efield can be linear (Pockels Effect) or quadratic (Kerr Effect). Thereare a number of different schemes that have been proposed. Many of theseare based upon the principle of linear variation in index causing thewavefront of coherent radiation thus incident to be bent in thedirection of increasing index. Presently, devices constructed to renderthis effect are either slow due to mechanical components andlimitations, limited in aperture with small angles of regard or limitedin scanning speed due to relaxation characteristics, i.e. LC materials,which while very versatile, are effectively useless at scan ratedapproaching 100 kHz.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,771 to Buher et al. discloses a beam deflectorcomprising an elongated bulk crystal of linear electro-optic effectpotassium dihydrogen phosphate encased on two opposite elongated sidesbetween hyperbolically shaped dielectric blocks, which are in turncoated with conductors such that, when an AC voltage is applied to theconductors, a linear electric field variation occurs in the crystalcausing the desired linear variation RI. Most bulk crystal solutionsrequire significant voltage to drive desired deflections, say 150V for a2.34°, making them impractical for portable or electric vehicleapplications, even if the aperture could be arbitrarily large, which isnot the case.

Another approach by Watanabe, et al. covered in U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,536uses dual arrays of interdigiated electrodes on one surface of anelongated crystal. AC voltages thus applied, particularly in the MHzrange, produce an effect, while not exactly linear, that induces anevertheless controllable deflection of a light beam. The device patentworks with a large number of materials and is incorporated herein byreferences for such teachings. The aforementioned device and many otherslike it, which utilize elongated media, suffer from polarizationsensitivity, making them wholly unsuitable for reflected lightapplications.

For large beam diameters, U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,111 discloses a devicecomprising a layer of strontium barium niobate on a transparentsubstrate. A closely-spaced array of linear stripe electrodes isdeposited thereon. Independent voltage signals are then used to locallychange the RI under each electrode, creating in the perpendiculardirection to the electrodes an approximately linear change in RI. Alight beam whose diameter is large compared to the electrode spacingwill be deflected as it travels through the medium, will be deflected ina direction also perpendicular to the electrodes. In order to be mostsuccessful, this approach requires electrode spacing, which is smallcompared to the wavelength of the light. U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,747provides further insight into devices of this construction. If theelectrode spacing is not small, diffraction effects occur creating lobesoff the main beam. This effect was used to some advantage in U.S. Pat.No. 4,639,091, by Huignard et al.

In addition to light transmitted through a layered device, (such as thatdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,251), where the light is reflectedafter transiting the programmable layers, purely reflective deflectionis possible in two dimensions. (FIG. 1.) The incoming electromagneticbeam 2 can be repeatedly reflected and steered to generated steered beam4 through a variety of electrically conductive transparent materials 6with large index changes at the interfaces 8 with nearly equivalentperformance. The requirements for reflective device operation arenecessarily limiting in that the desired effect can only be applied inhigh signal to noise environments and makes receiving of low intensity,long distance return pulses (>150 m beam path) nearly impossible, to saynothing of highly limited field of regard or IFOV.

More recently electro optical materials have been extended into thepolymer space, where a layered structure of support materials and apolymer matrix is utilized to effect beam steering. W. Wang, et al.,report in Sens Actuators A Phys. pp. 1570-73, (2011) improvements havebeen made in reducing the applied voltage required to gain the desiredEO response. Many EO polymers have been modified via additives andindeed structured to enhance their respective EO response by virtue ofcreating easily polarizable moieties on long-chain backbones, theinnovation in Wang et al., relates to the use of a thermoplasticmaterial and multi-stage prisms fabricated therefrom to achieve 29°deflection angle, which is notable for devices of this construction.This is limited in scaling and linearity of signal response across thefield of regard.

Yaacobi, et al., conveys an innovative advance in phased arraywide-angle beam steering as noted in Optics Letters, vol. 39, no. 15(2014), where a high-speed, low power and wide-scan-angle optical phasedarray is reported. The array is based on a novel phase shiftingarchitecture. The approach utilizes 32 μm long grating-based antennas,fed through evanescent field waveguide couplers from a bus waveguidewith directly integrated thermo-optic phase shifters. The demonstratedphased array is continuously steerable over a 51° angular range with a10.6V signal. The average power dissipated in such a device is ˜18mW/antenna with a 3.2 dB cutoff speed of 100 kHz.

Several notable advances of the state of the art at the time ofpublication are worth noting. Chief among them are the wide steeringangle and very low power for such a deflection. The ability to operateat 100 kHz demonstrates on/off behavior that is much faster than LCmaterials and this device was also fabricated utilizing standard 300 mmsilicon integrated circuit techniques are all significant advances.Here. the use of a spectral comb enables multi-beam emission, therebyenabling 2-D scanning in a design that can be modified for anywavelength from 1.2-3.5 μm. The device can be economically mass-producedfor use in automobile accident avoidance technology, but questionably.Although the device from Yaacobi, et al. is a suitable advance in beamscanning, in order to operate in a commercially viable way in the AVspace, the solution must address the receiving problem. Their devicefails just as the Vescent Technologies, Inc. device of FIG. 6 has—itcannot admit beams of arbitrary size and thus both suffer from largedivergence, which accelerates as the signal to noise ratios decreases.

FIG. 6 illustrates the evanescent field device architecture. Incomingelectromagnetic beams 2 are steered by control signals entering thedevice 10 and generating a cone of potential signal angles 12 which canbe directed to fill an aperture of a downstream optic, of limited size.Unusable for transmitting or receiving at high frequency and an evensmaller aperture than current galvo technology. Furthermore, there arelimitations in device scaling as suggested in FIG. 7, a graph ofresolvable spots 14 vs voltage 16, and the active signal collectionangle over which the device can be employed. The IFOV is too narrow foreffective AV applications and is limited to applications where this isless problematic or the beams are highly directional.

To wit, the presence of side lobes also indicates a narrowed steeringangle since there is no benefit in steering beyond the spacing of twoconsecutive beams. It has been variously defined, notably in Yaacobi etal., that the beam spacing, Δø, is the angle between the fundamental andthe next order lobes. This angle can be derived by applying thefirst-order constructive-interference condition on the array's antennaswith all of the antennas emitting at the same phase and it is related tothe antenna pitch, d by the relationship

$\begin{matrix}{{\sin ({\Delta\varphi})} = \frac{\lambda}{d}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

where λ is the laser wavelength. Thus increasing the angle between twoconsecutive lobes requires narrowing the antenna spacing. Unfortunately,since the antenna spacing needs to approach a half wavelength to achievethe full 180° steering range, approaching this range prevents theinclusion of other components in the interstitials between the antennas(such as phase shifters as in J. Sun, et al. Nature vol. 493, p. 195(2013) and/or of waveguides to different antennas as in K. Acoleyen, etal., Opt. Express vol. 18, p. 13655 (2010).

Given that silicon photonics is inherently two-dimensional, extractingother components from between the antennas limits the array to onedimensional electrical steering and forces long optical antennas tocover the necessary aperture size. In the longitudinal direction, i.e.along the antenna waveguides, the emission angle of the N^(th) orderθ_(N), in air, is given by

$\begin{matrix}{{\sin \left( \theta_{N} \right)} = {n_{eff} - \frac{N\; \lambda}{\Lambda}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where n_(eff) is the wavelength effective index and Λ is the gratingperiod. This limits the broad applicability of that innovation andpoints to a need for an innovation where the electrical input componentsare not subject to such limitations and half λ spacing of the driveelectrodes is possible.

Electrical or Acousto-optic deflection or modulation (EOD, AOD and AOM),as seen in FIG. 5, enable an incoming electromagnetic beam 2 to passthrough the device 18 while the medium is stimulated to affect a changein index which moves the beam. Oscillating the incoming signal enablesthe beam 2 to be steered in a single axis 20 resulting in a narrow coneangle. Since the effect is quite small, large beam paths are required tocreate a usable effect.

Several multilayer devices based on LC architecture have been created,(FIG. 4) where an incoming electromagnetic beam 2 passes through a firstlayer 22, subsequent layers and finally the last layer 24 to emerge assteered beam 4 in a different orientation from which it entered, but theeffect is limited in degree of deflection and is limited in itsapplication to the reception of signals.

Broadly reviewing the field of non-mechanical beam steering, there are anumber of categories into which the previous devices can be grouped, buttypically these approaches did not lead to the desired large Lagrangeinvariant. Arrays of waveguides have also been investigated, e.g., inAlGaAs as described in F. Vasey, et al., Appl. Optics, vol. 32, pp.3220-3332 (1994), but again waveguide arrays have a limited Lagrangeinvariant. Liquid crystal technologies are of particular interestbecause of the potential to achieve the large Lagrange invariants and atthe same time can potentially be fabricated using well-establishedtechniques for manufacturing liquid crystal displays, see A. Tanone, etal., Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 7, pp. 285-90 (1994). Liquidcrystals approaches have been investigated for a considerable number ofyears since A. Fray, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,334 completed hispioneering work in the field in 1978. Liquid crystals have highbirefringence, so can steer by creating a large OPD for one polarizationusing relatively modest voltages. Liquid crystal devices have beenfabricated to implement both variable blaze and variable periodsteering. The variable period approach used an array of piston phaseshifters to approximate a saw tooth phase profile with 2r phase resetsunder electronic control. Steering time is typically on the order ofmilliseconds. While liquid crystal devices have several advantages, oneimportant disadvantage has proven to be their steering efficiency atlarge angles. A result of the low efficiency is that alternatetechniques have been investigated for steering to large angles, some ofwhich have been discussed herein in detail and other by reference havebeen incorporated into this disclosure. The final steering system insystems such as these often consists of a liquid crystal optical phasedarray for continuous steering over small angles combined with analternate technique that provides steering to a discrete number oflarger angles. The combination results in a system with continuoussteering over large angular range, but one burdened with limited scanability in/above the 100 kHz regime, a necessary condition for broadapplication of non-mechanical beam steering in AV vision systems.

Of particular interest to the discussion of the present invention, is adevice disclosed in U.S. Patent Application 2005/0225828 wherein asemiconductor material is imbued with quantum dots in order to effectelectro-optic beam steering, which exhibits a larger Lagrange invariant,but is limited in application by steerable beam size, shows a limitedspan of control over the signal to be modulated and lacks theflexibility to be deployed in large phased array configurations requiredby LIDAR applications and the like. Additionally, the present inventionalleviates the expense limitations associated with constructions of thissort by avoiding complex and time-consuming material depositiontechniques such as MOCVD, CVD or epitaxy.

Most of these limitations are imposed on the device by virtue of itsmodulation schema requiring the signal to be confined within a waveguidein an era when the desired approach is a free space beam steering opticof innovative construction. Herein there exists a very importantdistinction between the prior art and the present invention: The presentinvention is concerned with beam steering over an extremely large rangewith virtually unlimited clear aperture, not with modulation of confinedsignals, per se and the ability to operate in either transmit or receivemode in a LIDAR system.

Taking stock of the state of the art, it is instructive to investigateas many related inventions and techniques to examine the various schemaused for manipulating the E-M field associated with light. The presentinvention compares to previous methods, but improves the state of theart in its ability to function as both a transmit and receive unit byvirtue of large clear aperture and transmission mode operation at orabove 100 kHz, and ideally into the MHz regime to provide multiplepulses in flight at any one time to improve the point cloud density foroptimum signal:noise ratio. Many other inventors practice art that isbased upon reflection mode modulation, which while it will suffice fortransmission mode operation, fails primarily due to polarization lossand efficiency where near single photon detection must be reliablyachieved. Both U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,647,158 and 6,836,35 teach themodulation of light in waveguides by use of electro optical effects.Both suffer from limitations in capacitance and thus drive signalfrequency. An improvement to this would embody drive frequencies >100kHz in deployments related to LIDAR for transportation and navigation inAV systems.

The state of the art covers a wide array of intended applications, butfew applications are specific to LIDAR systems for transportation. Forall the incremental advancements, there are still a number of gaps inthe current and prior art relative to the high performance requirementsoutlined herein. Nearly all of the prior art is restricted toapplications where a high intensity beam is required over a narrowaperture. For transportation applications, it is very obvious that theeye safety limit for fluence/average power, will be rapidly exceededunder these conditions. The ideal solution would require pulse energy ofless than 2 micro Joules (<20). The prior art is further limited tosmall beam diameter or small aperture. Solving these limitations toenable a beam-scanning receiver without moving parts would revolutionizethe autonomous vehicle industry.

FIG. 2 illustrates beam steering available in a wide array of waveguideand telecommunications applications. Incoming electromagnetic beam 2enters the waveguide 28 and emerges as the steered beam 4 (via thesteering block, made of a variety of electro optical materials) guidedto a variety of optical components coupled into the wave guiding medium.It has a low input aperture, slow scan speeds and ultimately nomechanism to usefully gather signals from the surrounding environs.

Additional and more current attempts to address these shortcomings existin the prior art of Rohani (20190025430) and Uyeno (20170365970). Theseeach teach systems for the autonomous operation of a vehicle, includingsolid state scanning mechanisms. Rohani uses a solid-state scanningmechanism with an optical phased array to steer pulses of light byshifting the phase of the laser pulse as it is projected through thearray. Uyeno teaches a solid-state scanning mechanism using a liquidcrystal waveguide. Neither Rohani or Uyeno allows for a wide IFOVbecause of their beam steering approaches.

Similarly, Capasso (20070058686) and Depree (20120212375) teach solidstate scanning devices impactable for use in an autonomous vehiclecontrol system.

Having discussed the downfalls of the prior art and their counterindications for limited success as an element of a vision system for anautonomous vehicles, the novel vision system and beam scanner will nowbe discussed.

The Beam Scanner

The present invention's novelty lies in the design and operation of itsbeam scanner. This beam scanner can be used in a transmit module capableof random access, high frequency large aperture, rastering and randomaccess pointing of (or recption of from a wide array of angles)electromagnetic signals to cover a desired instantaneous field of view(IFOV). This beam scanner may also be used in a receive module. Bothembodiments are capable of spatially random-access or sequentialemission/collection of the electromagnetic signals. It is to be notedthat the complete vision system may be comprised of either or both ofthese modules together or the receive module in conjunction with atransmit module of different design. The heart of the present inventionis the beam scanner (as structurally and functionally described herein)used as a receive beam scanner in the receive module of the visionsystem.

The beam scanner (used in the receive module, and/or the transmitmodule) in more technical terms is commonly known as a spatial lightmodulator that alters the direction of electromagnetic wavefrontsincident on the substrate plate. This beam scanner's novelty lies in thefact that it uses no moving parts and is made of at least onesubstantially transparent and partially conductive substrate platehaving at least one generally planar face with a series of affixedparticles where each of the particles are of an arbitrary size, andwhere each of the particles possess an induced dipole moment, and whereeach of the particles are in electrical contact with the partiallyconductive substrate plate.

The substrate plate(s) of the beam scanner is/are in operational contactwith a controller. The controller alters the electrical environment ofthe particles (preferably quantum dots) by changing their dipole momentproportionally with the degree of electromagnetic wavefront steeringdesired. This steering enables communication of the steeredelectromagnetic wavefronts from beam scanner to a detector. Thissteering is affected on a length scale proportional to the size of theaffixed particles. This length scale corresponds to the size of thepixels or voxels contained on the substrate plate(s). The structuraldetails and operation of the beam scanner in conjunction with the visionsystem are more fully discussed herein. The terms electromagneticwavefront, pixel and voxel are used with their commonly acceptedtechnical meanings, especially when used in conjunction with LIDAR orany similar, adjunct or analogous technology.

FIG. 16 provides a conceptual drawing of an autonomous vehicle 34utilizing a beam steering receive module 36 in its vision system 42. Thevision system 42 is operably connected to a guidance system 44 forcontrolling the braking and steering of the vehicle 34. The visionsystem 42 has a receive module 36 and a transmit module 46. (Here thereare two beam scanners with one functioning in the transmit mode and onefunctioning in the receive mode. Both beam scanners in this embodimentare operating in as transmissive beam steering elements although theycould both operate in as reflective beam steering elements or one aseach.) The transmit module 46 has an electromagnetic beam emitter 45that transmits s an output electromagnetic beam 39 through an optionaloptical conveying device 43. This enables the transmission of theemitted output beam 39 to the beam scanner 47 that creates the userselectable distribution of the outgoing interrogating electromagneticbeams 50. The reflected interrogating electromagnetic beams 48, afterreflection from a surface or object 40 in the external environment 38,are collected and steered by the beam scanner 52 of the receive module36. The steered beam 60 is communicated to the detector 54, through anoptional optical conveying device 56. The detector 54 transmits anoutput signal to the guidance system 44. The beam scanner 52 used inthis embodiment has at least one substantially transparent and partiallyconductive substrate plate having at least one generally planar facewith a series of particles affixed as described herein. It is to benoted, as discussed above, operation of a vision system as detailedherein, need only utilize the beam scanner acting in the receive modewithin the receive module to realize the advantages of the presentinvention.

The present invention relates to a beam scanner for use in a visionsystem having both a very large aperture (preferably up to 30 cm but aslarge as 1 m) and a very high scan speed, all without moving parts. Thissolves limitations presently inherent in current LIDAR/RADAR visionsystems for autonomous vehicle navigation systems (LAVNS or RAVNS).

The increase in aperture is realized through the construction of asubstantially transparent substrate plate (sheet) of arbitrary size andsubjecting the device to perturbation of the substrate'selectro-magnetic properties while at the same time exposing thesubstrate to the desired wavefront (transmiting or receiving). Thedevice does not rely solely on electro optical effects, crystal axis,waveguiding or any of a number of approaches presently employed for avariety of modulation schemes in telecommunications.

All of the optical scanners presently contemplated or manufacturedsuffer from limitations in the size of the signal angle admitted by thedevice, which renders them unusable for LAVNS systems that approximatethe manner in which typical gasoline powered vehicles operate, in theparticular case of vision systems deployed into electric vehicleapplications. There are two primary limitations of present solutions forsampling or scanning in LAVNS applications. One of the primarylimitations is scanning rate and this limits the maximum speedachievable by autonomous vehicles (AVs). The other is the size of theoptical elements collecting or disseminating the signals. The presentinvention overcomes both limitations as well as providing a means toovercome signal/noise ratio issues associated with realizing a maximumcone angle to provide the largest IFOV (instantaneous field of view)possible.

A variably polarizable, substantially transparent, optical element isembodied in the present invention to effect beam steering for use invehicle systems. By altering the internal electrical environment of theparticles on the beam scanner plate, the path of a light beam may bealtered. The invention comprises supporting substrates between which atleast one layer of a matrix containing particles capable of variablycreating a dipole moment under stimulation are distributed. The size ofthe particles should ideally be smaller than 500 μm (but could be muchlarger and indeed of any size) and can be derived from metallic,organic, insulating or semiconducting materials. The volume fraction ofthe particles should be >5%, but is variable for each type of material,an optimum being defined by the particular application envisioned forthe device and could even be as high as 90% loading by weight.

Since the beam scanner may be utilized with existing LIDARelectromagnetic beam transmitters, the ideal operating wavelength is1550 nm but the beam scanner can be constructed to operate in anywavelength range. The ideal scanning speed is about 1 MHz, but should beat least 100 kHz to be useful and could be as fast as 100 MHz.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the available clearaperture of the beam scanner is greater than about 5 mm and can be aslarge as 10 inches, while still having low divergence, about 2.5milli-radians (mRad) providing for built-in isolation and signaldiscrimination. The range of the ideal vision system's transmit/receivecombination will exceed 200 meters and can be as large as 5 km.

Conceptually, the beam scanner resembles FIG. 10, where reflectedsignals 48 from arbitrary angles are collected by the stack of plates ofthe beam scanner 52 and directed as a steered beam 60 along a singledirection through an optional optical element 56 onto the detector 54.Looking for more clarity in terms of device operation, FIGS. 12A and 12Billustrate how the beam scanner can operate in both transmit and receivemodes, which is to say that the electromagnetic signals may pass throughthe substrate plates of the beam scanner 47 or 52 in either direction.

FIG. 12A (transmit mode) shows the outgoing (emitted) signals 39generated by the emitter passing through the transmit beam scanner 47which steers these interrogating beams 50, comprising laser pulses,through a wide range of randomly addressable angles, into beamlets 75and 76, such that those beamlets cover the desired field of regard(IFOV) to interrogate the vehicle's external environment. The directionof signal propagation is illustrated by directional arrow 72. Thosebeamlets 75 and 76 are being steered through whatever angle the userdesires by virtue of transmit control signals 78 supplied from thecontroller to the beam scanner 47.

FIG. 12B (receive mode) shows the incoming (received) signals 48 (shownoriginating from different angles) reflected by the environment externalto the vehicle, passing through the beam scanner 52 which steers thereceived signals, comprising reflected laser pulses, from a wide rangeof randomly addressable angles into the collimated beamlets 60, whichare then communicated to the detector. The direction of signalpropagation is illustrated by directional arrow 71. The randomlyreflected incoming laser pulses 48, cover the desired field of regardinterrogating the vehicle's external environment. Those beamlets 60 arebeing steered through whatever angle the user requires for collection byvirtue of receive control signals 80 supplied to the beam scanner 52.

Yet another aspect of the present invention comprises a control systemfor rastering the beam path across the entire device or withinpre-defined regions or within “pixels”, the size of which is definedonly by the size of the control electrodes and the density of loading inthe support matrix. The pre determined arrangement of the particles,quantum dots or molecular clusters with charge centers, for instance,would enable some control in the size and arrangement of the portionscontrollable by virtue of external inputs, effectively adjusting thegranularity of the beam steering. In order to affect optimal coverage,ideally two devices would be included in the beam path and paired withcylindrical lenses behind each scanning matrix. The size and position ofthe lenses could be varied by application, but generally the beamscanning/steering device is positioned to deliver scanned/interrogatedpixel/position information to a collecting optic of some ilk.

The device operates by creating localized dipole moments by virtue of anapplied external field, which could be supplied by either direct currentor alternating current at a sufficiently high duty cycle to affect beamsteering at the desired scanning frequency as delivered by the externaldriver circuitry, minimally 2-5 kHz ideally up to 1 MHz. This enables avery interesting random pointing capability which opens the doors for asubstantial increase in computational image analysis to further enhancethe performance and safety of a vehicle thus equipped. Very high densityoptical data without being overly cumbersome on terms of size. Highframe rates without a linear increase in pixel rates, regardless ofwavelength being employed, since the beam scanner can be optimized forany wavelength desired. The components of the device minimally scatteror substantially transmit the 1550 nm radiation, being substantiallytransparent, but could operate at any wavelength longer than about 800nm. The particle size has some influence on the size of the appliedsignal, but the particles need not be particularly small to experiencevery high field strength over a very short length scale. Givensufficiently high intensity, the non-linear contribution of the index ofrefraction can be influenced, inducing a change in wavefront direction,by applied electrical magnetic or optical signals. Interestingly enough,the effect can be observed by application of magnetic, thermal andoptical excitation to the device, with varying degrees of magnitude.Each signal has an optimum choice for identify, loading, dispersion andpatterning of the particles in the device. All devices would ideally besolid state devices in the preferred embodiment of an operationalguidance system.

In one embodiment, the absorption spectrum of the supporting matrix,which need only be transparent to the 1550 nm radiation, and could thusbe fashioned from amorphous silicon (Si), plastic or glass, isnecessarily altered by the presence of the electric field. The inclusionof polarizble entities, molecules or particles or clusters of particles,amplifies this effect, thereby offering a means of solving thelimitations of beam scanners used in LIDAR systems for autonomoustransportation (AT). Beam scanning accomplished by means of physicallymoving objects is limited by scan speed (mass) and aperture (size).Applying the present innovation to a beam scanner that can receivesignals from an arbitrarily large range of angles leads to a solution tothe problem of self driving cars now being faced by every manufacturerpresently testing them, whether by LIDAR or RADAR guidance system, allsuffer the limitations imposed by moving masses, i.e. galvanometerscanners or others of that ilk, which ultimately limits vehicle speedand limits laser power due to eye safety requirements, even at 1550 nm.

Introduction of particles or polarizable molecules into a substantiallytransparent, partially conductive plate, naturally alter the electronicbehavior (dipole moment) of the host material, if not at least, itsinternal electronic environment. It is by controlling how theseparticles (quantum dots in the preferred embodiment) are supplied to theplate or applied to the surface of the plate that the present innovationcreates a device with no moving parts and an arbitrarily large aperture,capable of controllably steering incident electromagnetic radiation.

The particles ideally would be supplied by electrospray techniques thatrender the particles covalently bonded to the supporting medium and evenone to another, but the effect can be demonstrated with simple spin-ontechniques. The deposition technique renders the droplets containing theparticles or molecules positively or negatively charged relative to thetarget substrates and this creates a means for creating chargeseparation by building many layers of thus modified substrate plates.This charge separation can be controlled by judicious choice of processconditions to create permanent alteration of the electronic environs ina material, which means that the light beams can be effectively steeredeven without application of external control signals. This can befurther enhanced or perturbed by the optional use of an externallyapplied signal, if desired, for instance an electric, magnetic oroptical field. Use of quantum dots as a particle species, is an exampleof an embodiment of this innovation where the field can be affected byusing a electromagnetic beam of different wavelength in place of or inconcert with the control signals 78 or 80 to effectively steer the beamthrough individual pixels or zones.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the substrates thustreated with the electro-sprayed materials, now sufficiently imbued withcenters of localized charge separation, are laminated together, forminga stack capable of deflecting the electromagnetic signal of interestthrough a pathway to bring the signal into or out of an aperture of anoptical element mounted nearby, along an optical axis defined by theapparatus, such as a lens, and ideally a cylindrical lens—one for eachaxis of interest. Each desired axis of motion or axis of scanning forreflected signals, is served by such a device stack and a lens. In thepreferred embodiment, the device comprises a pair of lenses and a pairof substrate stacks to effectuate collection of reflected signals fromthe outside environment through which the AV is navigating or otherwisesensing, measuring or interrogating. Ideally the control signals will becycled across the device such that each region of the device can “look”at a variety of angles over the entire substrate, in a random fashion,such that the entire external region illuminated by the source, locatedon the AV, would be interrogated for reflected signals. Given the speedof light, to “look” downrange 200 meters, there is a window of 1-2nanoseconds in order to address or interrogate each point within thefield of view.

The rate would ideally be set to match the required time of flightassociated with a desired pulse rate from the illuminating (emitting)source, with the intention of putting and keeping multiple (at leasttwo) pulses in flight at all times before any two sequentially emittedpulses could have one of the pair detected by the receive module. Thehigher the rate the more light pulses could be placed “in flight” whichincreases the resolution of the picture obtained by the LIDAR or visionsystem. The key innovation in using the particle approach is in theswitching speed or scanning rate, which is ideally >100 kHz; a regimespresently served by no optical scanning device on the market—especiallywhen one adds the additional restriction of needing an aperture as largeas 2-5″. In so doing, multiple pulses and the high scan speed deliver avery high-resolution picture of the environment. The key innovation isthe ability to randomly address the beam for illumination and torandomly interrogate individual points for receiving in order toincrease the frame rate without increasing the pixel rate. Theresolution capability in sequentially scanned systems is inherentlylimited by the data handling capability of the system processingcomputer.

In the preferred embodiment for the AV application, the plates would beno more than five mm thick and ideally each element would require onlythree stacks, although as many as fifty can be envisioned for certainapplications. The stacks would be roughly six inches on a side, to forma rectangular or elliptical window through which the incident lightwould travel en route to the detector. The preferred embodiment isindicated in FIG. 13.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual representation of the receive beam scannermodule 36 which includes beam scanner 52, lens 56, detector 54 andcontroller 44 (microprocessor) as the navigation system inputs withoutspecifying a separate block component controller. The navigation systemmay interchangeably either directly control or process inputs from astand-alone controller. It is understood that both the vision system andthe navigation system are in operational contact; The, vision system hasno moving parts; at least one beam scanner 52 for the collection of anelectromagnetic signal pulse 48 sent by a signal emitter and reflectedby an environment external to said autonomous vehicle; a controller 44applying an external control signal to the beam scanner 52 to directsaid collected electromagnetic signal pulse, to at least one optionallens 56 positioned between the beam scanner and a detector 54.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual close-up detail from FIG. 13, of the beamscanner 52 and lens 56 focusing variably reflected and incident beams 48onto the detector 54. The detail illustrates the arrival location of thebeams and the steering effect placing the beamlets into the aperture ofthe optional optical conveying device or the detector. The beam scanner52 is a substantially transparent and partially conductive substrateplate having at least one generally planar face with a series ofparticles affixed with said plate (FIG. 11). Each of the particles 104in the series of particles, are of an arbitrary size, and each of theparticles 104 possess an induced dipole moment. Each of the particlesare also in electrical contact 102 with the partially conductivesubstrate plate 103. The detector 54 generates an output signal that itcommunicates to the controller 44 the vehicle.

FIG. 15 is a conceptual representation of a planar face of any layer ofthe beam scanner 52 represented in cross-section 110 as well toillustrate the three dimensional nature of the beam scanner. Crosssection 112 also illustrates an embodiment of electrical contact betweenparticles and a substrate plate.

The operational guidance system above further comprises at least onetransmit module 46 (FIGS. 8a and 8b ) that generates the electromagneticsignal pulse 39 to illuminate the environment external 38 to saidautonomous vehicle 34. The signal emitter is made up of a controller 61in operational contact with a solid state emitter 45 that illuminatesthe environment external to the AV 38 using light from 800 nanometers to2000 nm. The light may be produced from a variety of potential laserlight sources, with the MIXSEL being ideal because of its pulse encodingcapability. However, diodes, solid states lasers (DPSS, VECSEL or VCSELlasers) or a fiber laser would also be suitable light sources as long astheir pulse duration is 50 ns to 0.5 fs.

The ideal embodiment, possesses an control signal with a scan ratedetermined as the number of control signals generated per unit time,with the scan rate at a frequency between 100 kHz and 10 GHz. Ideally,the vision system (FIG. 9) would reflect emitted signals from objects inthe environment 38 and have a field of view (FOV) defined by the anglethrough which these reflected electromagnetic signals 48 are collectedthrough an angle 20, up to and including 180 degrees, relative to thedevice face.

The vision system further comprises a beam scanner 52 (for receiving)that is operationally connected to a controller 44 to supply the lensinput aperture signals 60 that are steered to the lens 56 by the beamscanner 52 so that the now directed signals are received by the detector54. The detector 54 is a diode or other device supplying the processingunit of the AV with an output signal from the detector. That outputsignal is proportional to a time delay between electromagnetic signalpulse generation and the electromagnetic signal pulse reflection fromthe external environment. The particles in the beam scanner (FIG. 15)can be arranged on, in or next to any number of dielectric plates thatare in electrical contact with one another and with the controller 44.

Ideally, the device will modulate the beam path through the stack 103 asconceptually presented in FIG. 11. Modulation is achieved by modifiedpolarization of the particles. The polarization change is directlyproportional to the applied control signals 78 or 80 (FIG. 12), in eachsegment of the device to collect and direct the incoming signals onto adetector at frequencies of 100 kHz to 500 MHz.

The bean scanner aperture will enable an IFOV which will be fixed toaccommodate 2 mRadians or better, which will enable low error ratesnominally on the order of 1.5 kHz, to enable built-in isolation anddiscrimination. The ideal embodiment will contain cells within thedevice that can be addressed independently of their neighbors, providinga pixel density of 8-10 megapixels across the 6″×6″ device face. Thedevice so assembled, would very easily advance AV sensing technology bysolving all of the technical problems presently preventing widespreaddeployment, increasing the maximum speed of the vehicle, increasing thesensitivity, requiring a lower power laser source (up to 100 timesless), and finally increasing the signal to noise ratio of the entiresystem.

Using a vertical external (or internal) cavity surface-emitting laser(VECSEL), and especially a mode-locked integrated external-cavitysurface emitting laser, would, as a result of so-called quantum noise,enable fingerprint recognition of individual pulses. This would enablediscrimination detection between many pulse sources occupying the samespatial volume. Thus enabled, the vision system would ignore the pulsesnot containing the pre recorded quantum noise footprint, greatlyreducing or even eliminating the error rate/or false positive rates.This would be most efficacious in the picosecond or femtosecond pulseregimes. The other advantage of these laser structures is their verysmall size, weight and power consumption profiles. Simply stated, onlysignals originating from this discrete unit will be processed by it.

Ideally the wavelength for which the device is optimized will be in theso-called eye safe region of the electromagnetic spectrum, preferably ator around 1500 nm, although the device need not be restricted to anyparticular wavelength. Each application will be optimized based onend-user goals. The preferred embodiment for AV applications with LIDARsensing technology is a laser diode or other laser as described above,laser operating from 800 nm to 2500 nm, but ideally at 1550 nm, with avariable pulse repetition frequency from 100 kHz to 1 MHz or beyond. Thereflected signal mode is the preferred mode of operation for the deviceand as such the preferred embodiment of the invention includescylindrical lenses, one for each axis, to enable collection of incomingsignals, captured by the beam scanner and steered by the application ofcontrol signals or passively by virtue of the design, without externalcontrol signals, to the input aperture of the downstream opticalconveying devices, which subsequently focus the signals onto thedetector, which in the preferred embodiment is a specialized compoundsemiconductor device, but could just as easily be an inexpensive PINdiode, with less than 20 photon sensitivity. This input would beconverted into information about the AV's environment and then intocontrol inputs to alter the AV's trajectory, course, speed or velocityalone or in concert.

Naturally, the particles within the scanner, on, in or near itscomponent parts, can be arranged in predetermined patterns to affect agreater change in the electronic environment within the scanner, thusimparting a higher degree of deflection to the incident signals. Theoperational guidance system previously described would also have a fieldof regard that corresponds to an input aperture from 2 mm up to 1 meterin diameter, based upon the dimensions of said substrate plate.Furthermore, an ideal embodiment of a module (transmit and receive)would include a signal emitter, a detector, a scanner and controller, aspreviously described, where all are solid-state devices. This inconjunction with a high scan speed would enable time delay proportionalsignals to be generated with the highest point cloud density wherein atall times during operation, there will be at least two sequentiallyemitted electromagnetic signal pulses that have not yet been collectedby said beam scanner. Simply stated, there will always be two scansignals (laser pulses) in flight.

The beam scanner comprises particles that are quantum dots affixed onthe substrate plate, or therein the substrate plate or a combinationthereof. This can be deployed as described, but also as an integratedset of components as seen in FIG. 16. Here, it can be seen that anoperational guidance system (comprising the vision system and thenavigational system) for providing an output signal responsible for themoving control of an autonomous vehicle has the following:

no moving parts;

is made of at least one signal emitter 45 generating the electromagneticsignal 39 to at least one optional first lens 43;

at least one transmit beam scanner 47 for transmitting the outgoingelectromagnetic signal 50 to be reflected by the environment 38;

at least one first controller applying a first control signal to thetransmit beam scanner 47 to direct the electromagnetic signal 50 to theenvironment 38 external to the autonomous vehicle 34;

at least one receive beam scanner 52 for the collection of theelectromagnetic signal reflected by an environment 38 external to theautonomous vehicle 34;

at least one second controller applying a second control signal to thereceive beam scanner 52 to direct the collected electromagnetic signalto at least one collecting optic;

at least one detector;

at least one optional second lens positioned between the receive beamscanner and detector;

wherein the collecting optic or lens communicates the collectedelectromagnetic signal onto the detector;

wherein the transmit and receive second beam scanners are substantiallytransparent and partially conductive substrate plates having at leastone generally planar face thereon each plate, with a series of particlesaffixed with each plate, each of the particles having an arbitrary size,and each of the particles possessing an induced dipole moment, and eachof the particles in electrical contact with the partially conductivefirst and second substrate plates. And also where the detector generatesan output signal communicated to the navigation system of the autonomousvehicle.

It is recognized that the primary components for the transmission andreception of electromagnetic signals/pulses/beams are identical to oneanother. The only difference between the receive module and the transmitmodules is the direction of the signal propagation, a detector where anemitter would otherwise be and the operational position of some of theoptional optical components. Ideally, the output signal generated by thereceive module of this embodiment will be proportional to a time delaybetween when the first electromagnetic pulse is generated by theelectromagnetic beam emitter of the transmit module, and when the firstelectromagnetic pulse, as reflected by the environment, is received bythe receive module. Part of the novelty of this vision system is that atall times during operation, there will be at least two sequentiallyemitted electromagnetic pulses that have not yet been collected at thereceive beam scanner.

The laser scanning features of the present innovation rely upon theapplication of control signals for variable mode operation and can bealso hard-wired into the beam scanner's substrate plate by judiciouscreation of zones of polarization within the substrate plate throughwhich the light travels. The electromagnetic environment is altered bythe creation of zones of graduated concentrations of polarizablemoieties, exhibiting a permanent dipole moment, or those that areelectrically neutral in their quiescent state, by virtue of theconditions used in the electrospray deposition, which create covalentbonding between the substrate and the particles, molecules or clustersof molecules, depending upon the degree of polarization desired.

The device in its preferred embodiment, consists of a laser source,being scanned across the field of view at a maximum scan rate in orderto put at least two pulses into flight toward the target in order toincrease the signal to noise ratio, which has the added benefit ofincreasing the resolution of the picture produced by the reflected laserradiation used for obstacle detection, lane maintenance andobstacle/collision avoidance and target acquisition. In the reflectivebeam steering example, the innovation enables a compelling commercialsolution by delivering a LIDAR solution capable of interrogating thesurrounding environment enabling safe, high-speed operation of thevehicle, in a performance window very much like that enjoyed by vehiclespresently commonly in use.

Although discussed as a single beam scanner, it is understood that theremay be multiple transmit modules and multiple receive modules placedabout the vehicle to paint the complete 360 picture of the externalenvironment of that vehicle to the navigation system.

The operation of the preferred embodiment of the beam scanner 52 actingas a receive module 36 of a vision system 42 to steer a collected orreflected beam 50 into/onto a detector 54 through an optional conveyingoptic device 56, for the eventual transmission of a control signal to anavigation system 44 of an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle 34consists of the following steps:

1) Installing at least one beam scanner on an autonomous orsemi-autonomous vehicle 34 at a location with a field of view of anexternal environment, the beam scanner comprising at least onesubstantially transparent and partially conductive substrate platehaving at least one generally planar face with a series of affixedparticles where each of the particles are of an arbitrary size, andwhere each of the particles possess an induced dipole moment, and whereeach of the particles are in electrical contact with the partiallyconductive substrate plate;

2. Transmitting an electromagnetic beam from the vehicle into theexternal environment;

3. Reflecting the electromagnetic beam from an object or surface 40located in the external environment 38;

4. Receiving the reflected electromagnetic beam 50 at the beam scanner52; and

5. Converting the reflected electromagnetic beam 50 at the beam scanner52 into a steered electromagnetic beam 60;

6. Communicating the steered electromagnetic beam into the detector 54.

Optionally, after step 5, transmitting the steered electromagnetic beam60 through a optic conveying device 56 before communicating the steeredelectromagnetic beam into the detector 54.

In the preferred embodiment, the converting of the reflectedelectromagnetic beam 50 into the steered electromagnetic beam 60 of step5 is accomplished by transmissive steering through the beam scanner 52.

In an alternate embodiment, the converting of the reflectedelectromagnetic beam 50 into the steered electromagnetic beam 60 of step5 is accomplished by reflective steering from the beam scanner 52.

It is important to understand that the novelty of the present inventionenables the operation of other components in an autonomous vehiclenavigation system that is not now possible. Specifically, the speed ofthe operation of the beam scanner in the receive module allows forrandom access steering, whereby the deflection of the beam occurs aboutthe center of the un-deflected beam, very much like a so-called,EO-Deflector, but also along a series of zero order paths in nearsimultaneous fashion. This is important because most present-daynavigation systems lack the ability to jump to a region of interest thatis not sequential relative to beam motion. Furthermore, the ability ofregion of interest specificity also enables a whole host ofcomputational imaging devices both for vision systems and for systemsoutside the scope of the present disclosure.

While certain features and aspects have been described with respect toexemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize thatnumerous modifications are possible. For example, the methods andprocesses described herein may be implemented using hardware components,software components, and/or any combination thereof. Further, whilevarious methods and processes described herein may be described withrespect to particular structural and/or functional components for easeof description, methods provided by various embodiments are not limitedto any particular structural and/or functional architecture, but insteadcan be implemented on any suitable hardware, firmware, and/or softwareconfiguration. Similarly, while certain functionality is ascribed tocertain system components, unless the context dictates otherwise, thisfunctionality can be distributed among various other system componentsin accordance with the several embodiments.

Moreover, while the procedures of the methods and processes describedherein are described in a particular order for ease of description,unless the context dictates otherwise, various procedures may bereordered, added, and/or omitted in accordance with various embodiments.Moreover, the procedures described with respect to one method or processmay be incorporated within other described methods or processes;likewise, system components described according to a particularstructural architecture and/or with respect to one system may beorganized in alternative structural architectures and/or incorporatedwithin other described systems. Hence, while various embodiments aredescribed with—or without—certain features for ease of description andto illustrate exemplary aspects of those embodiments, the variouscomponents and/or features described herein with respect to a particularembodiment can be substituted, added, and/or subtracted from among otherdescribed embodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise.Consequently, although several exemplary embodiments are describedabove, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to coverall modifications and equivalents within the scope of the followingclaims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desiredto be secured by Letters Patent is as follows:
 1. The method of using abeam scanner as a receive module of a vision system to steer a reflectedbeam into a detector for the eventual transmission of a control signalto a vehicle navigation system, comprising the following steps: 1installing at least one beam scanner on a vehicle at a location havingan field of view of an environment external to said vehicle, said atleast one beam scanner comprising at least one substantially transparentand partially conductive substrate plate having at least one generallyplanar face with a series of affixed particles where each of saidaffixed particles are of an arbitrary size, and where each of saidaffixed particles can possess an induced dipole moment, and where eachof said affixed particles are in electrical contact with saidsubstantially transparent and partially conductive substrate plate; 2transmitting an electromagnetic beam from said vehicle into saidenvironment external to said vehicle; 3 reflecting said electromagneticbeam from an object or a surface located in said environment external tosaid vehicle; 4 receiving a reflected electromagnetic beam at said atleast one beam scanner; 5 converting said reflected electromagnetic beamat said at least one beam scanner into a steered beam; and 6communicating said steered beam into a detector.
 2. The method of usinga beam scanner as a receive module of a vision system of claim 1 furthercomprising the following step between step 5 and step 6; transmittingsaid steered beam from said beam scanner through a conveying opticdevice.
 3. The method of using a beam scanner as a receive module of avision system of claim 1 wherein the converting of said reflectedelectromagnetic beam into the steered beam of step 5 is accomplished bytransmissive steering through said at least one beam scanner.
 4. Themethod of using a beam scanner as a receive module of a vision system ofclaim 1 wherein the converting of said reflected electromagnetic beaminto the steered beam of step 5 is accomplished by reflective steeringfrom said at least one beam scanner.
 5. The method of using a beamscanner as a receive module of a vision system of claim 2 wherein theconverting of said reflected electromagnetic beam into the steered beamof step 5 is accomplished by transmissive steering through said at leastone beam scanner.
 6. The method of using a beam scanner as a receivemodule of a vision system of claim 2 wherein the converting of saidreflected electromagnetic beam into the steered beam of step 5 isaccomplished by reflective steering from said at least one beam scanner.7. The method of using a beam scanner as a receive module of a visionsystem to steer a reflected beam into a detector for the eventualtransmission of a control signal to an autonomous or semi-autonomousvehicle's navigation system, comprising the following steps: 1installing a beam scanner on an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle ata location having a field of view of an environment external to saidbeam scanner comprising at least one substantially transparent andpartially conductive substrate plate having at least one generallyplanar face with a series of affixed particles where each of saidaffixed particles are of an arbitrary size, and where each of saidaffixed particles can possess an induced dipole moment, and where eachof said affixed particles are in electrical contact with saidsubstantially transparent and partially conductive substrate plate; 2transmitting an electromagnetic beam from said autonomous orsemi-autonomous vehicle into an environment external to said autonomousor semi-autonomous vehicle; 3 reflecting said electromagnetic beam froman object or surface located in said external environment; 4 receiving areflected electromagnetic beam at said beam scanner; 5 converting saidreflected electromagnetic beam at said beam scanner into a steered beam;and 6 communicating said steered beam into a detector.
 8. The method ofusing a beam scanner of claim 7 further comprising the following stepbetween step 5 and step 6; transmitting said steered beam from said beamscanner through a conveying optic device.
 9. The method of using a beamscanner of claim 7 wherein the converting of said reflectedelectromagnetic beam into the steered beam of step 5 is accomplished bytransmissive steering through said beam scanner.
 10. The method of usinga beam scanner of claim 7 wherein the converting of said reflectedelectromagnetic beam into the steered beam of step 5 is accomplished byreflective steering from said beam scanner.
 11. The method of using abeam scanner of claim 8 wherein the converting of said reflectedelectromagnetic beam into the steered beam of step 5 is accomplished bytransmissive steering through said beam scanner.
 12. The method of usinga beam scanner of claim 8 wherein the converting of said reflectedelectromagnetic beam into the steered beam of step 5 is accomplished byreflective steering from said beam scanner.